Fragile
by My one true love
Summary: Post graduation. Lucas and Peyton are just starting over when a surprise visit causes pain and tragedy.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! Here's a new fic for you guys. It's a short one, only three chapters, but it was for a challenge. Hope that you guys like it. Tell me what you think! Thanks to Kelsey for being my beta for this story.

**Chapter One**

Peyton knocked on the door impatiently. "Lucas Scott! Get your happy ass out of bed!"

Suddenly the door swung open , revealing a half-asleep Lucas. "What do you want, Peyton?"

Peyton grinned, holding up the coffee and bag of doughnuts. "I brought breakfast."

Lucas shook his head as he stepped back to let her in. "What time is it?"

"It's about 9:00."

"9:00? Peyton! I only have a few weeks left of summer vacation and you're waking me up at 9:00?" Lucas groaned as he plopped back onto his bed.

"Oh, stop whining." Peyton tossed him the bag and handed him his coffee. "I heard from Brooke last night."

Lucas flinched. "Peyton, didn't we talk about his? Please stop mentioning her to see how I react."

Right after graduation Brooke had broken it off with Lucas. She had been about to head back to California and decided that Lucas wasn't what she wanted. She would be going off to New York in the fall and Lucas would be going to Los Angeles. Brooke had decided that she didn't want the hassle of a long distance relationship.

Lucas had been devastated. He'd just bought an engagement ring and had been planning to propose that very night. He'd really closed up and wouldn't talk to anyone for days. Finally Haley was able to get him to open up. It still hurt him to think of her, but he'd moved on with his life,

Peyton shrugged, sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I really wasn't this time. I just wanted to let you know that she said hi."

"Uh huh, sure." Lucas rolled his eyes and pulled her down next to him, He kissed her lightly. "So, do we have any plans for the day?"

Peyton shrugged. "Not really, but we do need to talk."

"About?"

Peyton rolled her eyes. "What we're going to do when we go away to school in a few weeks."

Lucas sighed. "Do we have to?"

Peyton laughed. "Yes." She paused. "With me going to the community college here and you heading off to LA, we need to make some decisions."

"Are you gonna dump me like Brooke?"

Peyton playfully hit his arm. "No. And if I was I'd have to wait until right before you left to do it."

"Comforting." Lucas sat up and began drinking his coffee.

Peyton leaned back against the wall and focused on Lucas. "What do you want for us? I mean, are we going to try and plan a future or just see how things go?"

Lucas shrugged. "I think that at first we're going to want to see how things go. I don't want to break up, but we might want to see other people."

Peyton looked at him in disbelief. "You want us to be non-exclusive in a long distance relationship?" She shook her head. "We won't last very long like that."

Lucas shrugged. "I'm sorry, Pey. What do you want from me? Do you want me to lie to you and tell you that I will always love you and only you? That I'm sure that there's no one else out there for me? I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

"I'm not asking you to lie to me, Lucas. But I'm being honest here, too. I don't think that we'll last in that kind of a relationship." Peyton paused. "You're still hoping that Brooke will want you back, aren't you?"

"Oh, my God!" Lucas jumped off of the bed. "I thought that we decided BEFORE we got together that you wouldn't pull this crap on me." He shook his head. "I told you that there was no way that I could deal with the insecurity from you, too. That's part of what drove me and Brooke apart."

"I know. I'm sorry." She looked down at her hands. "It's just that I love you and I don't want to lose you again." She glanced back up at him. "I'm tired of losing the people that I love."

Lucas sighed as he walked over to Peyton, taking her into his arms. "I know, baby. I'm sorry. I love you, too, but you have to trust me." He paused. "We'll try things exclusively, but if either of us meets someone we'll discuss it again. How's that?"

Peyton shrugged. "I guess it'll have to do."

Suddenly Lucas's phone rang. He reached over and grabbed it. "Hello."

"Hey, Luke."

"Hey, Hales. What's up?"

"I wanted to let you know that Brooke's flying into town tonight."

"What!" Lucas glanced over at Peyton.

"She was going to surprise us, apparently. I called her parent's house to talk to her and her mom told me. I just thought that you might want to know."

"Thanks, Hales. Bye." He hung up the phone and sighed. "Brooke's coming into town tonight to surprise all of us."

"What?" Peyton's mouth dropped open.

"Apparently Brooke decided that she would surprise everyone by just showing up." He paused. "Did you ever get around to telling her that we got back together?"

Peyton shook her head. "I didn't want to cause anymore friction."

Lucas sighed. "Well, I guess that tonight's going to be interesting."


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys! Here's the second chapter. It only has one more chapter to go. Let me know what you think! Thanks!

**Chapter Two**

"In 'Experience' Ralph Waldo Emerson said, 'Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion.' That's about how I feel right now..." Lucas sighed. "When I woke up this morning I was happy and it looked like everything was going to work out okay. Then I heard about Brooke and all of the anger and hurt are back. Now, everything looks wrong and nothing can seem to go right." He paused. "Hales, I don't know what I'm going to do now. I can't deal with seeing Brooke again right now."

"I know." Haley sighed. "So, how's Peyton taking it?"

"Not so well. I think that she's really freaking out, but I just got onto her about the whole jealousy thing so she's hiding it." Lucas switched the phone to his other ear. "I just don't know what to do."

"Lucas, I don't know what to tell you. I wish that I could tell you what to do to make it all better, but I can't."

"I know, but it still sucks." The knock on his door startled him. "I wonder who that is." When he swung open the door he almost dropped the phone. "Brooke!"

"Brooke? Brooke's there? Oh, crap..." Haley's voice in his ear brought him back to his senses.

"Haley, I've gotta go. I'll call you later." He hung up the phone. "What do you want Brooke?"

Brooke sighed. "To talk to you."

"What makes you think that I want to talk to you?"

"I'm sure that you don't, but there's some things that I need to tell you."

"Fine." He stepped back and let her inside. They settled onto his bed and he listened as she talked.

"Look, Lucas. I'm not sure that I can deal with this." Peyton threw open his door and stared in shock at Brooke and Lucas. "Brooke? What are you doing here?"

Brooke wiped away the tears from her eyes. "Finding out that I've lost to you once again."

"Oh, come on, Brooke. It's not like that," Lucas pleaded with her.

"Whatever." Brooke held up her hand. "I don't care." She stood up and headed for the door.

"Brooke, wait." Lucas started to follow her until he saw the look on Peyton's face. "What, Peyton?"

"She wants you back, doesn't she?"

Lucas shrugged. "Yeah, she said that she had made a mistake."

"I knew it! And I bet if I hadn't walked in just now you would've taken her back. I knew that this would happen! How could I have been so stupid?"

"Knock it off, Peyton! I was NOT going to go back to her. Didn't we just talk about this?" Lucas picked up a book from his desk and threw it against the wall. "Why can't you just trust me? I have never done anything to betray you! Never!"

Peyton laughed. "You're right. You've never betrayed me, but you betrayed Brooke WITH me."

"Give it up, Peyton! I am not going to go through this with you again!" Lucas was so angry that he was shaking. All of his anger wasn't at Peyton, but she was the one that was there.

He was angry with Brooke and Peyton. And if he was honest, he was even angry with himself. He shouldn't have let Brooke's visit get to him, but he couldn't help it. Brooke had always been able to get to him. Both her and Peyton. And having to deal with one right after the other was not working out well for him,

"So, what? You can't have a discussion with me over something like this?"

"A discussion? You call this a discussion?" Lucas scoffed. "This is called a fight, not a discussion."

"Whatever! It doesn't matter what it's called. We need to talk about this!"

"Talk about what? When Brooke told me that she had made a mistake I told her about us. Which, by the way, YOU were supposed to do. And that's when you stormed in here."

"Why are you being so stupid, Lucas?" Peyton threw her hands up in the air.

"I'm not. I just don't want to do this right now."

"Fine!" Peyton spun on her heel and threw open the door. "You can go to hell, Lucas Scott!" She slammed the door loudly behind her.

"Well, shit! Good job, Lucas. Great way to screw everything up." He opened the door. "Peyton, wait! I'm sorry!" He jogged down towards her car, but as he neared the car she took off. "Peyton!"

Peyton roared off in her car, not even looking back. She was fighting to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. She ran a hand over her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears. Instead the tears began to streak down her face, blurring her vision. She knew that she could've handled that better, but when she'd seen Brooke and Lucas together she'd freaked. She hated being jealous, but at least she hadn't attacked Brooke like she'd thought about doing.

Suddenly her phone started ringing and she looked down to find it. "Hello?"

"Peyton?" Lucas's voice came through the phone.

Peyton glanced up at the road and saw a young child directly in her path. "Oh, shit!" She dropped the phone, bringing both hands to the steering wheel. She quickly spun the steering wheel and slammed on her breaks. Her brakes froze up, causing her to slam into a tree. A truck chose that moment to come barreling around a corner and ran straight into her car. It caused her car to begin spinning again. As the car began to flip she felt her self slipping into unconsciousness.

"Peyton? Oh, my God! Peyton, are you okay?" Lucas's voice shouted from the phone.

"Lucas..."


	3. Chapter 3

1Hey guys! This is the last chapter of the story. Please let me know what you think!

**Chapter 3 **

"Peyton? Peyton!" Lucas yelled into the phone as it disconnected the call. "Oh, crap!" Lucas stared at the phone, not sure what to do. He sickly dialed Haley's number. "Haley! I was on the phone with Peyton and she was in an accident. I don't know what to do!" Lucas knew that he was becoming hysterical, but didn't know how to stop it.

"What?" Haley was shocked. "Peyton was in an accident?"

"Yes, but I don't know where she was at." His eyes filled with tears. "Haley, I don't know what to do." The sound of sirens in the distance filled the air. "I hear sirens." He jumped into his car and began to head towards the sound. "I'm going to head towards them. I'll call you back."

"Me and Nathan will head to the hospital. And I'll call Brooke. We'll meet you there."

"Okay. Thanks, Haley." Lucas quickly ended the call and tossed the phone onto the seat. He turned a corner and saw that the road was blocked. There were fire tucks, ambulances and police cars all over and in the midst of them he say the mangled form of Peyton's car. "No!" He quickly pulled over to the side of the road and jumped out of the car.

A police officer stopped him as he raced towards Peyton's car. "Sir, you can't go over there."

Lucas tried to shake off the office. "That's my girlfriend's car. I have to see if she;s okay."

The officer shook his head. "I'm sorry, son, but you'll have to wait. We're trying to get her out now. Once she's out you can ride in the ambulance with her, okay?"

Lucas nodded as he watched the men trying to get Peyton out of her car. She had to be okay. She was too young to die. But looking at the car he knew that she had to be badly injured. He continued to watch, anxiously awaiting for them to pull her from the car.

Finally they extracted her and placed her on a stretcher. He turned to the officer. "Okay, can I go now?"

With a nod, the officer led him over to the awaiting ambulance. "This is the girl's boyfriend. He wants to ride i with her and I'm sure that he can answer any questions that you have."

The paramedics turned to him, but he'd fallen into a state of shock at the sight of Peyton. Her blonde hair was red and matted with blood. There was a huge gash across her forehead and she appeared to be bleeding from her stomach. One of her legs was bent at an odd angle and she appeared to be bruised all over.

"Sir!" One of the paramedics shook him. "I'm sorry, but I need to know her name please."

"Peyton Sawyer." He climbed into the back of the ambulance and numbly answered their questions. He didn't remember any of the trip to the hospital and once there they wouldn't give him any information.

He found Haley, Nathan and Brooke waiting for him. "How is she?" Brooke looked anxious.

"Is she okay?" Haley's eyes were glassy with unshed tears.

Lucas shook his head. "She was unconscious. It looks really bad." He sank into a chair as tears began to fall from his eyes. "She didn't even look like Peyton anymore." He put his face into his hands and cried. Haley and Brooke sat on either side of him, trying to comfort him.

They waited for hours and finally a doctor came out. "Anyone here for Peyton Sawyer?"

Lucas quickly stood and headed for the doctor. "I am. I'm her boyfriend."

"Is there any family?"

Lucas shook his head. "Only her dad and he's out of town. I tried calling, but haven't heard back."

With a sigh the doctor led him to someplace a little more private. "By, the way, I'm Dr. Denson."

"Lucas Scott."

"Okay, Mr. Scott. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Miss Sawyer is awake. The bad news is that we weren't able to stop the internal bleeding. There was too much damage internally and we weren't able to get it all. She's not going to make it much longer."

Lucas's anger flared. "Well, then go back in and fix the rest of it! She can't die! Fix it!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Scott. There's nothing more we can do. I'm very sorry." With an unhappy sigh Dr. Denson walked away.

Lucas stood there, seething until his friends came hurrying over. "So, what did he say?"

Lucas looked at their expectant faces and tears began to fall once again. "She's going to die, They couldn't stop the internal bleeding. But she's awake."

Brook's face fell and she began to sob. Haley turned, burying her face in Nathan's chest.

Nathan's eyes met Lucas's, his expression one of shock. "You guys should go in and see her. I want to go last." With that Lucas headed out of the hospital.

He returned an hour later, praying that it wasn't too late. His friends had returned to the waiting room. He had wanted to get his emotions in check before going to see Peyton.

He opened the door to her room and slipped inside. He eyes fluttered open. "Luke?"

"Hey, Peyton." He sat in the chair next to her bed.

"I'm dying, Lucas. I know and accept it. You need to also." Peyton's eyes fluttered shut. "Well, at least you don't have to choose between me and Brooke again, huh?" She gave a small laugh.

"This isn't funny, Peyton." Lucas sighed as he picked up her hand. "I love you, Peyton."

"I love you, too. But my time's over here. Promise me you'll take care of her and never leave her. Please."

"Peyton, stop it. You're not going to die. Now stop!"

Peyton shook her head. "I'm dying, Lucas. So YOU stop. Just remember that people are fragile. People can be hurt." With a sigh her eyes shut again and she slipped away.

Lucas knew even before the machines began to whine, that she was gone. Nurses and doctors rushed in at the sound of the alarm. "Sire, you're going to have to leave the room." A nurse rook him bu the arm and led him to the door. He stepped out, but kept the door open so that he could see what was going on. They brought out the paddles and tried to bring her back to life.

Dr. Denson sighed as he gave the paddles back to the nurse. He glanced t his watch. "Time of death 11:32 pm."

Lucas looked on, dazed, as they turned off the machines and began taking out her IV. When Dr. Denson went to leave he caught sigh of Lucas. "I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Scott."

Lucas nodded and headed for the waiting room. When he saw his friends he finally lost it. "She's gone. She's dead."

Brooke and Haley broke out in sobs and tears began to fall from Nathan's eyes. Lucas fell to his knees in front of them and the girls put their arms around him. They sat there, holding one another, while they grieved.


End file.
